Patrick

"So... I have this cousin who's single..." 

I never liked blind dates.  Then again, I'm not too fond of surprises in general.  So, the first time my friend Lynn let this well intended offer slip past her lips, the first thing I answered was "Uh huh.  That's cool.  Not interested."  Not that I didn't trust Lynn.  She and I have been girlfriends for years.  She knew me way before I was even a mom.  She is one of my two best friends.  It's just that I always felt blind dates were scary enough, but a blind date through a good friend?  It's almost an obligation to like the person once you accept the hook-up.

Lynn and I would talk on the phone for a couple of hours while we had down time from the kids.  And every once in a while, the conversation would lead to relationships.  And she would pull that old panty out of the drawer... "So... I have this cousin who's single..."

After being single for a while, I started to feel a little lonely.  I loved my freedom, loved having a life with my kids that was healthy and not full of destruction.  I appreciated the challenges of my choice to raise my kids on  my own.  But after a while I felt ... alone.

Finally, one night I found myself sitting in my porch scrolling through Craigslist's personal ads.  And I thought to myself,  "WTF!  Am I that lonely?!"  I got on the phone and complained to Lynn about wanting someone to just hang out with.  Someone who could be a friend or companion.

And of course, she said, "Well... I have this cousin..."

I gave up.  I succumbed.  I said, "Fine, tell me about this cousin." 

That was a while ago.  And Patrick and I are still dating.  I guess we're dating.  It's so weird calling someone a boyfriend when you're not in highschool anymore.  Anyway, he and I are doing pretty well with this whole relationship thing.  We definitely have some interesting experiences though.

I'm a fully flamed Aries.  He's a Libra.  Complete opposites in personality.  Me with my lust for passion and fire, words of affection, and crazy music.  And him with his earthly spirit and a gentle touch.  We put each other in places we've never been before.  And I'm usually the one expecting him to keep up with me.  And he usually just smiles and reminds me that we don't need to rush.

He's a single dad and way older than me.  Someone accused me of being a gold digger.  I told Patrick he better make some money because it would be cool to actually live up to that title.  :P  We're actually about equal in income.  His credit score is probably better than mine, though.  Someone else asked me if I had daddy issues and that's why I'm with an older guy.  I just answered both their remarks with this:  "Can't a girl just like a guy for who he is?"  In fact, I'm gonna make a blog entirely on age difference.  I think it'll be interesting.

I usually don't blog about Patrick.  Not because I don't think he'd make an interesting topic.  It's just that, he's personal.  You don't let your neighbors peek into your pantry drawer, do you?  :P  I guess he's just been on my mind lately.  So I thought I'd write about him.

I hope that wherever you are in your single-momming life, you have a Patrick topic of your own that you'd like to talk about.

Til next post.  Peace.